Is

Print Dead?
Fashion Publications
Bethany Sargent | 1402016
HAND IN: 14/03/2016 | WORD COUNT: 1361
TURNITIN REF: 54247565

There has long been stigma attached to the phrase is print dead? This being said,
many people believe in some ways print is alive and thriving in this society in
comparison to web magazines. Other people think that eBooks and the Internet are
taking over the world and print in the fashion industry is long gone. This essay is
going to explore the different reasoning behind why people think this and to
ultimately come to a conclusion as to whether or not the rumours surrounding print
are true or not. This will be taking a look at different surveys and news sources as
well as books about print and magazines to overcome this question and answer it.
But do you really think the huge market, which is print, to die completely?

A lot of people are definitely for eBooks and online magazines. 5 years ago
they were the new and upcoming thing. People feared the ride of the eBook.
According to studies, eBook sales rose up to as much as 1,260%. This was huge and
Alexander Alter wrote about this in NY Times online. She stated:
As readers migrated to new digital devices, e-book sales soared, up 1,260 percent
between 2008 and 2010, alarming booksellers that watched consumers use their
stores to find titles they would later buy online. Print sales dwindled, bookstores
struggled to stay open, and publishers and authors feared that cheaper e-books
would cannibalize their business. (Alter: 2015)
This quote shows how quickly eBooks became popular with such a huge increase in
sales in 2 years. This also shows how once something becomes a fashion how
quickly people buy into it and follow the herd. This notion would allow people to
buy into it, with different websites offering a lot cheaper books and more choice to
customers. The eBooks were a lot cheaper then buying hardbacks, and it even
stretched to offering magazines and other subscriptions on eReaders, which still
worked out cheaper then buying hard copies. This then led on to the web creating a
whole library of e-zines and independent magazines.


Moving on from eBooks, people then moved on to creating a whole website
for an independent magazine or e-zine free of charge (or sometimes for a small fee)
for people to read and all genres, including fashion publications. This had a huge

impact on the printed magazine side of things as all the content a consumer wanted
was right at their fingertips.
From edgy programming to alternative content, the culture of the Net embraces
freedom. A tour of the outer fringe reveals creative experimentation within a cyber
world. Distribution of information to a mass audience underscores one of the
primary goals of the counterculture: information sharing. (Gill. 2000:67)
This shows how people enjoy having everything right in front of them, with no hassle
at all. The Internet is appealing to a huge audience in terms of online magazines and
content that is available so of course people are going to use it. It also makes it really
easy for independent magazines to establish themselves and create something for
the World Wide Web. Website design is getting easier and more affordable for
people. But just as quickly as the popularity of eBooks and online magazines rose, it
fell just as quick, but then again, even in print, an independent zine is not too
expensive to buy as they are not done for a profit.

Although eBooks and online magazines popularity rose quickly, the decline of this
was just as quick. Alexander Alter, after writing about the rise of eBooks, also put the
statistics of the decline of the sale of them for the NY Times. They stated that:
E-book sales fell by 10 percent in the first five months of this year, according to the
Association of American Publishers, which collects data from nearly 1,200 publishers.
Digital books accounted last year for around 20 percent of the market, roughly the
same as they did a few years ago. (Alter: 2015)
This talks about how quickly they lost popularity and how they have quickly dropped
in popularity. However, in modern day society people have now once again moved
on from eBooks and online magazines and are now deciding they would rather have
a physical copy in front of them due to it being so much nicer and more memorable
for them.


People enjoy something they can hold; it makes the experience of reading
something so much better, online you can not get the atmosphere of holding a real
magazine. A lot of people have said to me that they love the smell of a book and that

nothing can beat this. Other people then collect magazines, as well as keeping them
for memories or to cut up. A company called Newtek done research for Forbes on
who prefers what; a printed version or an Internet version. A print piece is a
physical thing. Magazines and newspapers can stay in houses or offices for months
or years, while Internet ads can disappear into cyber space instantaneously.
(Newtek: 2012). This shows that the majority of people definitely prefer having the
physical thing in front of them. It is also a nice thing to collect and treasure, because
going through archives on the Internet could take ages to find what you needed. It is
also not like you can use those magazines or read through them the same on the
Internet. Of course, people will still go online to look at a magazine, just because it
can be convenient- especially whilst travelling when it is sometimes hard to get hold
of a magazine. A lot of people have carried out surveys regarding this topic.


There are a lot of surveys out there, which look at the statistics of print in
comparison to the Internet. They all have the same sort of end result, which usually
ends up in print not being dead. Looking through different surveys and tests that
have been run about print media, this particular survey collected information that
took prints side and talked about how it was still in full force, it also talks smart
phone use and subscriptions. Mark Hooper, writer for the Guardian, wrote in an
article about this survey.
A survey in April by Deloitte found that 88% of magazine readers in the UK still
prefer to consume articles via print. While half of respondents to its state-of-the-
media survey (2,276 UK consumers, aged 14 to 75) owned a smartphone, 35%
subscribed to at least one printed magazine in 2011. (Hooper: 2012)
What is being said here is that a lot of people still prefer a physical magazine in
comparison to an online edition of it and even though smartphones have come
around, a good majority of people still subscribed to a printed magazine. This comes
hand in hand with how old people are. Someone in the older generation are less
likely to read a web edition of a magazine due to them liking and growing up around
printed magazines as this is what they were and are used too.

In conclusion, it seems as though there still is a huge market for printed magazines
and books as people really enjoy the physical side and the touch and feel of the
paper. Of course there is a market for online magazines and eBooks otherwise it
would have fizzled out a long time ago. Obviously people still use smart phones for
their daily fix of magazines, some even subscribe to the bigger magazines on their
phones. I say, you can not beat a good magazine, but others have different opinions
this makes it hard to completely answer the essay title of is print dead. Of course,
people will always have their own views on this topic, but in this essay, I believe that
print is definitely not dying as the market is still thriving, with its older readership
that do not want change, to the people that just can not get enough of the feeling
you get when you have a magazine. I do not think that print will ever die, as it is too
much of a huge market for it to fade out completely.

Bibliography

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- Alter, Alexander. (2015) The Plot Twist: E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is
Far From Dead. In: NY Times. [online] At:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/23/business/media/the-plot-twist-e-
book-sales-slip-and-print-is-far-from-dead.html?_r=0. (Accessed on
02.03.16)
Gill, Martha. (2000) Webworks: E-Zines. US: Rockport Publishers.
Newtek. (2012). Print is dead? Not so fast. In: Forbes. [online] At:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thesba/2012/06/28/print-is-dead-not-so-
fast/#40d9c0ac5d32. (Accessed on 02.03.16)
Hooper, Mark. (2012). Who says print is dead? In: The Guardian. [online]
At: http://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jun/03/who-says-print-is-
dead. (Accessed on 02.03.16)